1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the art of electrical connectors, more particularly to an electrical connector which prevents molten solder material from wicking or creeping along the electrical connector when locating the electrical connector on an underlying printed circuit board.
2. Description of the Related Art
In hand held and portable electronic devices, such as cellular phones and pagers, the trend is toward smaller and more compact designs to minimize the size and weight of the device and to allow for increased density of the electronic circuitry mounted on the printed circuit boards within the devices. Therefore, it is important to maximize the density of such devices by mounting components and connectors on both surfaces of the circuit boards, and by minimizing the distance between the printed circuit board and the connector mounted thereon. However, if components or connectors, in particular the component or connector terminals, are placed too close to the surface of the printed circuit board, reflow soldering during processing of the board may cause "solder-wicking" of the molten solder or spreading of the reflowed solder into exposed surfaces of the connector terminals.
The "creeping" or wicking of the solder at the terminal can interfere with the electrical connection between the connector terminals and mating component leads by increasing the insertion force of a mating pin or blocking insertion altogether, by causing solder bridging and/or short circuits with the terminal. Therefore, to minimize the risk of solder-wicking in these electronic devices, the known designs typically call for spacing the connector or component away from the surface of the circuit board to create a gap which minimizes the exposed surface of a terminal along which the molten solder can flow. However, this approach is not necessarily consistent with the trend toward high density and compact miniaturized devices, since the gap between the circuit board and the connector takes up valuable space.